painting, planking & other things

I’ve been a busy girl the past couple of days, which is why I’ve been quiet on my blog. Yesterday, I made a cord cover for the chandelier over my vanity in the master bedroom…

I just used scraps from the fabric feature wall. It’s a small thing that really finishes off the room. Here’s the chain without the cover…

…and with…

It’s easy to make. Just cut a 5″ wide piece of fabric about twice the length of the cord you want to cover. Fold it in half with the wrong-side-out. Sew the two sides together with raw edges facing out. Turn the piece of fabric right-side-out, which is a tedious process, and slide it over the cord. Just think of it as an over sized hair scrunchy. (I still need to get some white shades for it.)

I also repainted the room with the help of my new “intern”, Kelly. I received an e-mail from Kelly a couple of weeks ago. She is a student at Gettysburg College and is interested in decorating and design. Her mom reads my blog and suggested she contact me about working as an intern, so we started this week. It was great to have an extra set of hands…

…literally. (I love those teal nails!)

The room color went from Halo, which is a very pale greenish color, to Simply White, which was recommended to me by The Nester. (Both colors are by Benjamin Moore.) It’s a very subtle difference, but the room looks fresher. In addition to painting the room, hand modeling and snipping boxwood branches, Kelly helped me with painting planks for the bedroom ceiling project. It was awesome having her help. (I get her once a week! Thank you, Kelly’s mom!)

My husband took down the ceiling fan and moved the junction box to hang the chandelier over the bed. He really surprises me sometimes. Not only did he say it was okay to take the ceiling fan down, but he did it himself.

Unfortunately, in my enthusiasm over getting rid of the ceiling fan, I threw away all of the screws, some of which we needed today to hang the chandelier. So, I went on a treasure hunt for them…

My mom was amused and took a picture of me digging the screws out of eggs shells. The chandelier was worth it, though, I will say. A little rummage through the trash was not going to deter me.

Today, my husband and I worked on getting the planks up…

…dad made sure the planks were free from paint drips or anything else that would prevent the tongue and groove from fitting together…

…and my mom made sure the Joker and Darth Vader didn’t take over the Batcave.

She also proofed some of my HGTV.com articles and took pictures of things that amused her.

Somewhere between all of the painting and planking and digging through the trash, I spent some time working on my new milk paint colors…

One of them is perfect. I’m still tweaking the others.

This evening, as we crashed on the bed for a few minutes and looked at our newly planked ceiling and vintage crystal chandelier, I told my husband, “This is my love language. Working on projects together as a family is my absolute favorite thing to do.”

Throw out the notion that good design is expensive, must be carried out by a professional and can only be bought in a fancy store. I live in a real home on a real budget and have never taken a design class in my life. A great look is affordable and attainable to anyone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and dive in. So, get ready to go junking, tune up the sewing machine, and buy a good paint brush. Your home's potential is waiting to be realized and you're the one who's going to discover it.